Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Yujian Under Investigation

Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Yujian has been placed under disciplinary review and investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced on June 10, 2026. Chen, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Government Party Leadership Group, becomes the third high-ranking Shanghai official — or “tiger” — to fall since the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2022.

The announcement, made by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission, stated that Chen is “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation, as reported by The Paper.

Background and Career

Chen Yujian, born in February 1970 in Tancheng, Shandong Province, is a graduate of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics with a background in economics. He began his career at Shanghai Investment Consulting Company in 1993 before moving to the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, where he worked on high-tech industry and fixed asset investment.

Over the following decades, Chen rose steadily through Shanghai’s district-level government. He served as Vice Mayor of Yangpu District (2011), Vice Mayor of Songjiang District (2014), District Mayor of Songjiang (2017), District Mayor of Minhang (2020), and Party Secretary of Minhang (2021). In December 2023, he was appointed Vice Mayor of Shanghai at the deputy provincial/ministerial level, ranking seventh among eight deputy mayors. His portfolio included agriculture, rural affairs, health, medical security, and cooperation exchanges, as detailed by Caixin.

His last public appearance was on May 27–28, 2026, when he led a delegation to Lu’an City in Anhui Province for cooperative inspection visits, according to the Wanxi Daily.

The Lianbi Finance Connection

Chen’s downfall is widely linked to the Lianbi Finance (联璧金融) scandal, one of China’s largest P2P lending fraud cases. Lianbi Finance was closely tied to Shanghai Feixun (斐讯), a router and smart terminal manufacturer. The platform collapsed in June 2018, causing losses of over 12.5 billion yuan (approximately $1.8 billion) and affecting more than 1.1 million victims.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, a 2019 online whistleblower report accused Chen of acting as a “protective umbrella” for Lianbi Finance while serving as Songjiang District Vice Mayor and head of the district’s Illegal Financial Activities Crackdown Team in 2016. The whistleblower alleged that Chen failed to act on warnings that Lianbi Finance was operating as a self-financing tool for Feixun beyond its legal scope.

Further allegations reported by Caixin and other media claim that after Lianbi’s collapse, Chen instructed Songjiang State-owned Assets to transfer high-quality assets from Shanghai Feixun and directed local police to arrest the company’s legal representative and founder. The Songjiang State-owned Assets Investment Management Group indirectly held 7.53% of Shanghai Feixun shares, giving the company an apparent state-backed status that may have misled investors.

Lianbi Finance mastermind Gu Guoping was sentenced to life in prison in December 2021 for fundraising fraud.

Shanghai’s Anti-Corruption Campaign

Chen is the third high-ranking Shanghai official to be investigated since the 20th CPC National Congress. He follows Dong Yunhu, the former Chairman of the Shanghai People’s Congress who fell in 2023 and was sentenced to life for accepting 148 million yuan in bribes, and Zhu Zhisong, the former Party Secretary of Pudong New Area who fell in November 2024 and is awaiting trial.

The investigation also comes amid a broader crackdown on financial sector corruption and the long tail of accountability from China’s P2P lending industry collapse. Notably, Chen’s former Minhang colleague Wang Xiangyang was sentenced to 11 years in prison in April 2026 for accepting 29.59 million yuan in bribes.

Implications and Outlook

Chen’s investigation signals the continuation of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign at the highest levels of Shanghai’s political establishment. As a “post-70s” rising star who rose from district-level positions to vice mayor in just over a decade, his fall is particularly notable and suggests the campaign is not sparing younger, well-educated technocrats.

The case also highlights the problematic relationship between local governments and businesses in China, where state-owned entities’ involvement in private companies can create misleading impressions of official backing.

As the investigation is ongoing, key questions remain: what specific charges Chen will face, whether the probe will expand to other Shanghai officials connected to the Lianbi Finance case, and how this will affect Shanghai’s governance in the areas Chen oversaw, including agriculture, health, and medical security.